UNSC moves Gaza meeting to avoid clash with Trump’s Board of Peace 

The United Nations Security Council has rescheduled a meeting on Israel-Palestine to take place before United States President Donald Trump’s “Board of Peace” convenes in Washington on the same issue.

Initially set for Thursday, the UN Security Council session in New York is now taking place on Wednesday afternoon local time. Its focus is on the ongoing “ceasefire” in Gaza and new Israeli efforts to deepen its control and settler presence in the occupied West Bank.

Trump’s Board of Peace will meet in Washington on Thursday.

The UN Security Council changed the timing of its meeting to accommodate diplomats who planned to attend both events, reported the Associated Press news agency.

The overlap is a sign of potential conflicting agendas between the UN’s most powerful body and the board, of which Trump has named himself the indefinite chairman. He envisions the board having influence “far beyond Gaza” – ambitions that have fuelled concerns he is trying to sideline the UN and enshrine his own “imperial agenda”.

The foreign ministers of the United Kingdom, Israel, Jordan, Egypt and Indonesia, among others, are attending Wednesday’s UN Security Council meeting, which many Arab and Islamic countries requested address the Gaza ceasefire and Israel’s new illegal settlement project, ahead of Trump’s Board of Peace meeting.

Asked what he hopes to see from the back-to-back events this week, Palestine’s Ambassador to the UN Riyad Mansour said: “We expect from the international community to stop Israel and end their illegal effort against annexation, whether in Washington or in New York.”

The Security Council will be meeting a day after nearly all of its 15 members – minus the US – and dozens of other diplomats joined Mansour as he read a statement on behalf of 80 countries and several organisations condemning Israel’s latest actions in the occupied West Bank, demanding an immediate reversal and underlining “strong opposition to any form of annexation”.

On February 8, Israel’s security cabinet greenlit measures making it easier for Israelis to seize Palestinian land and directly buy property in the occupied West Bank, while expanding Israel’s military control there. Israeli Energy Minister Eli Cohen said it amounts to “de facto sovereignty” that will block the establishment of a Palestinian state. Israel’s far-right Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich vowed to also “encourage” Palestinian “emigration” out of the territory.

Meanwhile, Israeli settlers in the occupied West Bank, empowered by this legislation, have continued to harass and attack Palestinian communities. On Wednesday, four Palestinians were wounded – two of them with live ammunition – during one such settler attack on Mukhmas, near occupied East Jerusalem.

Outraged Palestinians, Arab countries and human rights groups have said Israel’s West Bank moves amount to a bid to illegally annex parts of the territory, home to roughly 3.4 million Palestinians who seek to establish a state there.

The UN meeting is also expected to delve into the US-brokered “ceasefire” deal for Gaza that went into effect on October 10.

Aspects of the deal have moved forward, including Hamas releasing all the captives it was holding and increased amounts of humanitarian aid getting into Gaza, though the UN says the level is still insufficient. A new technocratic committee has been appointed to administer Gaza’s daily affairs.

But the most challenging steps lie ahead, including the deployment of an international security force, the disarmament of Hamas, and rebuilding Gaza, which Israel has continued to attack despite the so-called truce.

Trump said this week that the Board of Peace members have pledged $5bn toward Gaza reconstruction and will commit thousands of personnel to international stabilisation and police forces for the territory. Indonesia’s military says up to 8,000 of its troops are expected to be ready by the end of June for a potential deployment to Gaza as part of a humanitarian and peace mission.